Vision, cradling the last unconscious agent, flew out of the sinking Quinjet, his voice filled with regret.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save everyone. This agent's neck needed stabilizing; I've already realigned his cervical spine."
"No, it's not your fault," Captain Rogers said, looking toward the battlefield. Missiles carved brilliant arcs across the night sky, and the streams of autocannon fire resembled a meteor shower. Realizing that the shallow-focus earthquakes and explosions could trigger a tsunami, he requested Vision to bring the rescued agents to the still-functioning Quinjet. "Sam, take me to the sky carrier," he said. "I don't know what they're attacking, but it might be linked to the earthquake. Now that they've won, I intend to have a serious talk with them."
"You sure? They look pretty pissed off right now."
Rogers smiled. Sam's sense of humor seemed unbreakable, no matter the situation.
"I have to go, Sam," he said. "I want to see their results, and get Stark out while I'm at it."
After three full salvos of ammunition, Agent Victoria Hand finally ordered the gunnery chief to cease fire.
Once the order was given, logistics and damage control crews hurried to the weapons bays for maintenance, and the same was happening on the other two sky carriers. Their tasks included servicing the cannons and missile launchers' automatic loading systems, maintaining shipborne weapons, and inventorying ammunition stocks. The autocannon and main cannon barrels were blisteringly hot, and the electromagnetic weapons required specialized cooling systems to continue operating. Many of the regulations they were following had been adapted from existing manuals, and the damage control and maintenance crews were responsible for providing feedback to establish new protocols. But Agent Hand didn't care about that—what mattered was the battle's outcome, because it directly indicated whether humanity's technology could confront future threats.
"Recon drones launched. Deploying sonar buoys. Sonar buoys activated."
Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming firepower that could tear apart the monster had also destroyed many of the drones before they could retreat.
Victoria Hand crushed her rising sense of triumph—she would allow no self-satisfaction before conclusive results were before her. Her goal was to shred the monster into pieces, ideally down to individual atoms, to completely prevent any contamination. Kaecilius had stressed repeatedly that post-battle contamination was a serious concern—ordinary creatures exposed to even inactive monster tissue could mutate, much like how toxins accumulate up the food chain. If they didn't eradicate it completely, the mutations would eventually affect humans.
"Ma'am!" a female agent from the operations department stood up. "A small target is rapidly approaching the Scourge. Radar shows the object is about the size of the aircraft that approached the sky carrier before the battle."
"Turn off the anti-air guns. Let them come." Hand glanced at the radar screen, waving her hand impatiently. She had already noticed the Avengers' Quinjets before the battle, but hadn't expected them to survive. "Tactical squads to the deck. Commander Tita, send a heavy weapons squad from the Brotherhood to the Scourge; I'll need their strength. As for the mages..."
"I'll send a mage squad to the deck," Kaecilius nodded. "We don't know how many of the Avengers' agents were contaminated. Kamar-Taj will handle purging any who were tainted."
"You can remove your blindfold now, Wanda."
"It's over? Where's the monster?" the witch asked eagerly, not questioning but confirming. Her intuition told her that the madness and hunger she sensed earlier had vanished completely.
When the cannon fire stopped, the sea didn't return to darkness. High-powered searchlights mounted on the sky carriers' lower armor lit up the churning sea, and pale moonlight spilled down through the shattered clouds. Dozens of small red, green, and white lights were moving swiftly across the battle zone—position lights from assault transports. They darted across the steaming ocean like diving ospreys, dropping dazzling flares.
Because the combat methods were so different from existing protocols, many of the tactics had been devised by Solomon after discussions with battle-hardened veterans from the Eternal City. Only those men knew what rules were practical and which were bureaucratic nonsense. The pilots of the assault transports were elite former S.H.I.E.L.D. fliers who also had input in tactical development. Even though the thick white steam still blanketed the ocean and obscured vision, Wanda could still smell the gunpowder in the scorching winds.
"Maybe it's dead already. Agent Hand is doing the final sweep," Solomon said as he shut down the lighthouse beacon, the sudden absence of heat behind Wanda making her shiver. "Once she confirms the kill, it'll be over."
"We stopped the earthquake and the sacrifice?"
"The ancient lava belt has been disturbed. There will be natural earthquakes in the future—but that's not our concern. We've already mitigated this event as much as possible. Otherwise, it wouldn't just have been a few wooden houses collapsing," Solomon said, frowning hesitantly. He sensed a familiar pattern behind it all.
This event might be linked to the awakening of the Beholder, but there was too little evidence now to jump to conclusions—and it would be reckless to throw Kamar-Taj's limited forces into a potential trap.
"The sacrifice was doomed to fail from the start. Someone fed James Boone false information. The evil god he worshiped couldn't be summoned by those methods, and Boone couldn't have summoned the devouring worm alone—it requires many spellcasters. His ragtag group simply wasn't enough. Someone helped him summon the monster," Solomon said. "The biggest clue is the vampire corpses. Crawlers are a lesser servant species, and their creation requires a necromancy ritual. Only one group knows that magic. Which means a high-ranking figure—or the cult of such a figure—engineered this. I'm too familiar with this method—layer upon layer of disinformation exhausting responders, with every exploited group unintentionally advancing some hidden goal. But I didn't expect His reaction to be this fast..."
"So there were still innocent people killed in the earthquake? We couldn't stop the vampires from killing, nor completely prevent the earthquake?"
"Yes, but far fewer died than would have otherwise. I've known since I was very young that no one can save everyone. Trying to do so only results in greater casualties. We have to make choices. No one is omnipotent. Even holding noble intentions to save all, the dark side of magic will creep in, twisting minds and tempting spellcasters into corruption. That's the most despairing truth—we can only do our best. Your task is complete, Wanda. You don't need to be involved in what comes next."
Wanda's face fell.
"It's not because you didn't do well enough," Solomon said, cutting off her protest. "I believe the true target of the enemy was you. You've gained more visions in this mission than ever before, and your mental state has grown unstable. For a beginner, that's dangerous. I suspect the true goal was to make your powers go out of control—to have you fall under the sway of an Outer God. This isn't overprotection. It's the conclusion after eliminating all other possibilities. No matter what, we must guard against it—it's non-negotiable."
The witch looked very unhappy.
"Come now, let Victoria handle things here," Solomon said, opening a portal. "Let's do something easier—like recapturing the runaway village prophetess from Kamar-Taj. And afterward, you'll study the cult that can summon Crawlers—while wearing enough protective charms to cover you head to toe."
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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